Remembering Times of Peace 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 5 – Purity 1061

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the sky over Wade Road set ablaze by a winter sunset comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene back on December 17th, 2022. I presume that I was out walking the dog, as I shamefully admit that I honestly don't know if I would take as many walks as I do, especially in December, if it wasn't for the yearnings of our canine friend Harley. I don't recall really anything of that day in particular, but was fortunate to have my phone along for the stroll as I used it to capture the glory of God's creation painted on the skies. If this scene looks familiar, it's because I shared a nearly identical photo, photo from this vantage point back on December 19th. But I apparently took two shots of it. And as I was called to remember a time of peaceful restfulness, my thoughts brought me back to December 2021. So I decided to look back in my photo archive to get an accompanying December visual reminder to accompany it, even though it's a different year. Um, and although we are 6 days into June, my mind is, is calling up jumbled lines from the Counting Crows song "Along December." As I have friends, family, and former friends going through medical issues, grief, and tough times, I, uh, I think of the line that says, "The smell of hospitals in winter and the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters but no pearls." And even though we are in the hot months, people are suffering from the cold effects of loss, pain, and uncertainty. But to echo the hopeful verses from that same '90s pop classic and it's been a long December, and there's reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last. I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass. We only get one present, and that's right now. And for my friends and family who may be feeling that it's been a long year, a long couple of months, uh, or a couple of weeks, or a long couple of days in the light of the things they are suffering, I would encourage you to hold on to even these moments as they pass, but to keep walking and talking with God until you get to the other side of these current trials by focusing on the good you have right now, and by remembering similar trials and troubles that you have survived and walked away from in the past, or by just remembering good times or just simple times of peace in the past. Knowing that you can have similar moments in the future, or right now, if you seek them in the presence of the Lord. And that brings us to our current series, where I am walking through the 28-Day Joy Challenge, because we are encouraging ourselves and others, you, to find peace in our lives by increasing our capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting and appreciation. The 28-Day Joy Challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Corsi's latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Corsi on the topic of joy by going to fourhabits.org. And the, uh, the link for that is on the blog. So if you want to go there, go there. So let's jump into Day 5, which will direct us to remember a time of peace. And the— and the 28-Day Joy Challenge says Day 5: Reflecting on the Restful Moments. Welcome to Day 5 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: give yourself permission to take a break from your busy day to enjoy some peace and rest. Listen to the birds sing, feel the sun on your face, You may be surprised how much more focus and energy you feel afterward. Today's Practice: Exercise 5. Today we practice remembering peace and rest from the past. How this exercise will benefit you: We remember restful moments from the past so we feel peaceful in the present. Our friend Janet shared, "I miss my granddaughter when I'm not with her." Now I can quiet and think about good times with her. Exercise steps: find a comfortable, quiet spot and reflect on one of the most restful, peaceful moments from your life. This is a time in your life where you felt calm, quiet, and refreshed. Refreshed. Set a timer for 4 minutes to reflect on your peaceful moment. Try to focus on taking deep breaths that expand your stomach. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. As I contemplated the instructions of today's joy challenge, I was thankful that I have a history of seeking peace through the practice of meditation. Now hear this first and foremost before what I say next: the religions and philosophies of this world, particularly of the New Age or Eastern mysticism—Buddhism and Hinduism would lead you astray and take you on a calm, ultra-spiritual journey to hell, and there would be no rebirth, nirvana, enlightenment, or reincarnation to get a second chance at life or to save all sentient beings. In my broken journey to know the truth of the ultimate reality that is revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I practiced a form of Tibetan Buddhism for 5 years where I spent countless sessions in meditation, calming abiding, calm abiding, where you focus just on your breath, and insight meditation, where you focus, where you focus meditatively, where you meditatively examine different aspects of life, where you would wonder and examine different aspects of reality. God's creation, hello, but somehow never acknowledge the Creator. And ironically, because God created all—our breath, our bodies, and the glories of his universe—even when you—we don't acknowledge him, we can find a measure of peace in the things he created. So I had a lot of history of peaceful, restful times in meditation, and just in times of appreciating wonderful sights in my travels, from which I could have drawn from today's, uh, practice. And after I have been born—saved—born again, I have countless sessions of morning prayer and meditation and instances of many retreats where I read the Bible or other Christian books that I could have thought about for today's practice. However, I instead decided to focus on one of the most peaceful memories of resting that I have experienced on this earth where I wasn't alone. If we can, we should utilize memories and experiences where we were being relational in this practice. As that woman focused on her times with her granddaughter, I guess., and that would also give glory to God. Um, the, the memory I chose to meditate on for the 4 minutes of today's challenge was from the first Christmas that I spent with my wife, then fiancée, Tammy Lynn, back in December of 2021. That Christmas morning, and for most of the day, Tammy Lynn and I were alone and spent the time rejoicing over one another's company and the celebration of our Lord and, uh, celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior. Of the birth of our Lord and Savior. It was, it was the culmination of a dream of mine that I had all my life of spending— let's see— of all my life of spending Christmas just in the company of the one I love, where there was peace. While I have enjoyed several joyful and peaceful Christmases in the past, That Christmas of 2021 was without a doubt the best one I have ever known, and it was because of, uh, not only who I was with, but because of who I had become to be, uh, Christian who had surrendered to the Lord's will for his life, and although had suffered much loss and many trials, had come to a place of freedom, victory, and love, as had my wife The Lord had guided our paths to one another, and that Christmas was one where I had a true sense that we had arrived. You can chew Barry Manilow, where it looks like we made it, left each other on the way to another love, looks like we made it, or I had thought so too today until you were there everywhere. And all I could taste is love the way we made it. Looks like we made it. Whoa, babe, we made it. Yeah, that's horrible. Anyway, we made it. And I was filled with joy as I meditatively remembered that day this morning as I crushed today's 28-day joy challenge, practice number 5, by going well beyond the 4-minute mark in peaceful contemplation as the challenge directs. So remember the times of peace in your life and rejoice, but make sure that you remember all of this had come under God's guidance and direction. And seek the Lord to find more of those magic moments by following him to, to your future and hope. Let's see, today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 25:7, and the word of God says, 'Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.' Today's verse reminds us to thank the Lord that he doesn't hold our past against us, as we have been forgiven of all things when we put our faith in Jesus. Uh, rebellious sins of my youth. Hey, that's me. Uh, oh Lord, I was such a rebel, such a jerk, so ignorant, stubborn, and selfish. I thank God every day for pulling me out of the darkness of my selfish, fleshly life to give me a new life of meaning and purpose. Part of our journey of, uh, is knowing that the word of God is really true. And it's not only not a matter of debate, although lots of Christians like to debate various aspects of our faith, it's a matter of realizing the Word of God is the ultimate truth and that it applies to us personally. It is only by making the decision to believe and live according to the Word of God that we can ever overcome our doubts and rebellious spirit. When you are not sure, you, uh, let's see, when you're not sure, you take God's word under advisement and essentially ignore it. You struggle and sin because you're not sure if you're saved, if you're forgiven, or if you really are a Christian. So forget that, forget those rebellious days, and decide to live according to the decision you have made in making Jesus your Lord and Savior. When we accept Jesus' forgiveness and eternal life, we should also accept that we are now to live a Christian life. We can't ask the Lord to forget our rebellious youth in our rebellious old age. Instead, live in the natural consequence of knowing God's mercy and unfailing love by being obedient. Leave the rebelliousness in the past and follow the Lord in your purpose. Where peace and joy define your life. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from The Holy Spirit by A.W. Pink, um, as we continue in chapter 7, which is, um, the topic is The Holy Spirit in Christ. And today's sections are on the Spirit and the Ascension of Christ, and Christ bestows the Spirit. So if you want to see what A.W. Pink has to write about the Ascension and Christ bestowing the Holy Spirit, um, go to mt4christ.org and you'll find that resource at the end of today's blog post. And as always, at the end of today's blog post, you'll also find an encouragement to join our Victory Over the Darkness: The Bondage Breaker and Freedom in Christ series of discipleship classes. Via the M.t. for Christ 247 podcast. Um, I say it that I, I emphasize the discipleship classes because I had a question asking where the audiobook for The Bondage Breaker was on one of my posts, uh, you know, in on YouTube. Um, I didn't steal the audiobook and reproduce it on YouTube. I recorded the, the teachings where I stole the, the book and, uh, you know, taught from directly from the book, basically. Um, so it's not quite the audiobook, but I would say 90% of the content of the classes, uh, are directly from the, the source material for those classes. So while my teachings aren't an audiobook, um, if you want the material and maybe some explanation and commentary to go with the material, you can enjoy our discipleship classes on the M.t. for Christ 247 podcast and the M.t. for Christ 247 YouTube channel. You know, I feel like snarkily, you know, replying that the audiobook could be found on audible.com or other retailers of Christian audiobooks because, you know, while I share this material, I don't— certainly don't mean to take revenue or anything from the original authors. So if you want the original audiobook for The Bondage Breaker, go to audible.com or Amazon or christianaudio.com or wherever audiobooks are sold instead of looking for free stuff on the internet. Although my classes are free and unfortunately you get me reading and teaching from those books, but it's only to give the author's glory and I encourage you to, you know, go out and buy buy the author's original works to support them. Be it A.W. Pink, Dr. Neil Anderson, Marcus Warner, or whoever. I'm just a signpost to point you to Christian resources that I found helpful and that helped me in my walk. But like anything, you have to, you have to go out and read those things and most importantly apply what they're teaching from the Word of God to your life. And that's what a Discipled Life is all about. I was honored to counsel an old friend, basically from a Freedom in Christ course that I taught previously, but they had bailed out before doing the Steps to Freedom in Christ, and they walked away from the class and bad things happened. Surprise, surprise. And now, basically, essentially a year later, they're coming back to get that teaching and go through the steps. And to get the encouragement, you know, to get some accountability because they realize that that old rebel isn't dead yet. And, you know, I'm hopeful that, you know, our discipleship relationship and them going through the Steps to Freedom in Christ will help them along their walk. But as I point out today, essentially you have to make the decision to follow Christ. It's not just, I believe this, I'm not sure about my salvation. Well, No, you, you— it's not a theory, it's your relationship with God. Um, you know, it's not a matter of debate. Did you put your faith in Jesus? Yes. Are you following him? Uh, not always. Well, why not? Um, you know, that's, that's the thing. You know, God said, follow me. He didn't really give a lot of instruction to the apostles. Um, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And, uh, they went and they left everything behind to join him. So we should have that same apostolic spirit of following the Lord into the mission that he has for our lives. And it's vastly— and it's not cookie cutter. We can do— there's different callings and different things for us to do. Well, you know, we should make no mistake that we trust what the word of God says because it is true, and we apply it to our lives to benefit. You know, if you want the fruit of the Spirit, you have to walk in the Spirit, not in the— not walk in the flesh. And so you have to agree that, yes, I put my faith in Jesus, that therefore makes me a Christian, and therefore I'll live for God, and I'll give up my little agendas, uh, as much as I can, progressively, bit by bit, little by little, to be more like Christ. You know, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So let's see it. You know, what do you got? You know, we're not proved, you know, we're not saved by acts of faith, but those little disciplines and things that we do are the evidence. Those are the fruits of the Spirit growing in our life. How do you know someone's a Christian? Well, they pray and they study the Bible and they do good works and they go to church and they serve in the church. They have a ministry of some sort, ministry of encouragement. Um, you know, they share the gospel, they tell people about what Christ has done in their lives. This is what a Christian does. And if this doesn't describe your life, you need to change. You need to follow Christ and, and do this, share the good news that you are experiencing, or tell yourself the good news in case you're not experiencing it. And guess what? It comes down to you believing. And as Bob Hoffer taught, it's not a matter of You know, you must believe to obey. You must obey. You must obey to show you believe. You know, those who, those who believe obey, and those who obey believe. And that's as cut and dry as it gets. So if you're being rebellious, you're showing unbelief. So stop being the old rebellious person and live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not a matter of you doing all the hard work. You trusting the Lord and surrendering to his will, recognizing your weakness and dependency on God, and just doing what you're supposed to do according to the word of God, doing what's right. It's a simple life, but we get it complicated because we put our own agendas above it, and we're not supposed to do that anymore. We're supposed to serve the Lord and Master of our lives, Jesus Christ. So no chastisement, it's not easy, um, but You know, we progressively walk into it, and the more we surrender to His will, the more we obey, the more we benefit, and we find our purpose in Christ. So we recommend that, and we recommend the study of God's Word because that's where you get the wisdom. And so if you don't have a Bible study, we recommend or offer our Bible study, which is a topical study that we do with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti once a week. And so we tell you check out Bible Study with the Sencatis so you can listen to what people who want to follow the word of the Lord sound like, um, you know, and what we tell you to do. And that's to trust the Lord and follow the Lord. That's our number one lesson that's repeated over and over and over again, um, to live according to God's truth. Anyway, I have to, you know, that's not all I do because I have a regular job, so we got to go do that. Um, so you might have to do that too. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you so much for the truth that you've shown to us, and thank you for the new life you've given us. Thank you for forgetting about our rebellious past and leading us to forget about our rebellious past too, by living according to faith in the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message or looking for free audiobooks. Um, that you would come alongside them and convict their hearts to follow and trust in you. And, uh, Lord, we just pray for you to come alongside them and, um, you know, guide them and help them in whatever way you can. And Lord, we ask the same for ourselves. Um, we pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and move our steps in the things you want us to do. Help us to do the best job we can do of whatever we're asked to do today. And never forget that you're with us every step of the way as we continue to seek and walk and talk with you through this life. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.